Extract

Russell and Menzel (1933) have pointed out that neon is cosmically more abundant than argon, which latter had not at the time they wrote been detected in stars or nebulae, though the lines to be looked for are favourably placed. On the other hand, argon atoms are some 500 times more abundant in the atmosphere. They conclude that in all probability neon has escaped from the atmosphere. Since it could not do so under existing temperature conditions, the inference is that it escaped soon after the earth was separated from the sun’s mass, when the temperature was still very high. This view requires that the atmospheric argon and neon are primitive, and are not supplied to any important extent from the interior of the planet, as atmospheric helium undoubtedly is.

Footnotes

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